玛丽·古德1931—2019

Good served as the Under Secretary for Technology in the United States Department of Commerce from 1993 to 1997 under President Bill Clinton. She briefly served as Acting United States Secretary of Commerce from April 3, 1996, to April 12, 1996.

Good received a number of significant awards including the Garvan–Olin Medal, the Othmer Gold Medal, the Priestley Medal, the Vannevar Bush Award, and the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy, and Employment.

Early life and education

Mary Lowe was born on June 20, 1931, in Grapevine, Texas, to Winnie and John Lowe. The family moved to Kirby, Arkansas, in 1942. Her father was a principal in a local school, and her mother was a teacher and librarian. The family later moved to Willisville, Arkansas, where Mary attended high school. No chemistry course or lab was offered at the school, so Mary would spend her time as a young student creating her own labs. She once produced a homemade photography studio in the cellar of her home after fixing up an old enlarger and reading up on the chemicals needed for photo developing.

Lowe initially attended Arkansas State Teacher's College (now the University of Central Arkansas) with the intention of being a home economics teacher.

Louisiana State University System

Good spent 25 years in teaching and research at Louisiana State University and the University of New Orleans, which was at the time part of the Louisiana State University System. Good went to Baton Rouge as director of the radiochemistry laboratory and as an instructor and assistant professor of chemistry (1954–1958). At Baton Rouge she worked on iodine and sulfur chemistry with Sean McGlynn.

In 1958 Good and her husband moved to New Orleans when both were offered positions at a new campus that was being established. The Louisiana State University New Orleans (LSUNO) was the first university in the southern states to open as a fully integrated institution.

American Chemical Society

Good was the first woman to be elected to the board of the American Chemical Society in 1972. She was elected ACS Board Chairman in 1978 and 1980, and became ACS President elect as of 1986, serving as president in 1987.

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

Good was also elected President of the inorganic chemistry division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 1981, and held the position until 1985, for two terms. She was the first woman to be elected a division head of IUPAC.

As head of the inorganic chemistry division, she was responsible for overseeing the work of the commissions on nomenclature for inorganic chemistry; the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights, and the commission on high temperatures and refractory materials. Her work included supervising a complete revision of the IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry or "Red Book".

In addition to holding the position of division president (1980–1985), Good served on IUPAC's Governing Bureau (1985–1993).

Industrial career

In 1980, Mary Lowe Good was approached to become head of the Engineered Materials Research division at Signal Research Center, Inc. (previously Universal Oil Products, later Allied-Signal Inc.), with a staff of 400 scientists and technicians and annual sales of approximately $3 billion. In 1981 Mary Good was chosen as vice-president and director of research. She headed the Research Center during a period of significant changes (ownership, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures), maintaining a focus on new technology development and its licensing and commercialization.

Government service

Mary Lowe Good held government positions under the administrations of four presidents: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

In 1980 she was appointed to the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation by Jimmy Carter. In 1986 she was appointed to it again by Ronald Reagan. From 1988 to 1991, she was the first woman to chair the board. In 1991 President Bush appointed her to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). All three positions were part-time commitments, held during the period in which she worked at Allied-Signal Inc.

In 1993, Good left Allied Signal to take a four-year full-time position as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology in the Technology Administration, under the Clinton Administration.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

In 1997 Good became the Donaghey University Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She also became the founding dean of the George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT). She retired July 1, 2011, becoming dean emeritus of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and special advisor to the chancellor for economic development.

Other activities

In 1976 Mary Lowe Good was initiated into the Beta Phi chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma at the South Dakota School of Mines.

She was member for Fund for Arkansas, LLC and Stage 1 Diagnostics, and served on the boards of Delta Trust & Bank and St. Vincent Infirmary, Biogen Idec, IDEXX Laboratories, Cincinnati Milacron, Ameritech, Acxiom Corporation.

From 1988 to 1993 Mary L. Good was president of Zonta International Foundation, an organization supporting the involvement of women in business and science, and the improvement internationally of their legal, political, economic, educational and health status.

Good was the founding Chairman of ASTRA, the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America, beginning in 2000.

Death

Good died at her home in Little Rock, Arkansas, on November 20, 2019, at the age of 88.

Awards

• 1969 Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award
• 1973 Garvan-Olin Medal
• 1982 Scientist of the Year, Industrial Research and Development Magazine
• 1983 American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal

1987 Member of the National Academy of Engineering for both materials and chemical engineering

1988 The Delmer S. Fahrney Medal of the Franklin Institute

1991 Charles Lathrop Parsons Award for Public Service, first woman recipient, from the American Chemical Society

• 1991 IRI Medal from the Industrial Research Institute, first woman recipient
• 1994 Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• 1996 Glenn T. Seaborg Medal, first woman recipient
• 1997 Priestley Medal, first woman recipient
• 1998 AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize, first woman recipient
• 1998 Othmer Gold Medal
• 1999 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences